Clemson study links rape drop to Internet

From In defense of Internet pornography

Sex crimes among Summit County juveniles are at their lowest rate since record-keeping began in 1989. Officials are baffled as to why.

Well, I can tell them why, and I can tell them in just one word: porn.

Never has pornography been more readily available. The hardest of hard-core smut can be seen every day by anybody with a computer and an Internet connection.

Isn't porn supposed to lead to more sexual abuse of girls and women? Well, that was the theory, voiced constantly and vehemently for decades. But statistics show precisely the opposite.

During the 15-year period ending in 2008, the rate of forcible rape dropped a staggering 30 percent nationwide.

In 1992 — the Dark Ages of the Internet — about 43 people were raped among every 100,000 Americans, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report. Since then, the rate has dropped to 30 per 100,000.

Kvetch!

From Kvetch.com

• What? A Kvetch is a funny complaint. This site randomly displays kvetches sent via Twitter.
• Why? Because maybe if you let it out online, you'll be happier in real life. (More info.)
• How? Click “Hit Me!” for a new kvetch. If it makes you LOL, click the thumbs-up. If not, click the thumbs-down. Highly rated kvetches will be shown more frequently. To post your own, first join Twitter and follow Kvetch. Then just send a tweet in this format: “D Kvetch Your kvetch here!” Kvetches are displayed without attribution because we want this to be a safe place to let it out, baby.
• Who? Kvetch has been online and off since 1996. This incarnation was created by Derek Powazek, Josh Bryant, Jonathan Snook, and Toby Joe Boudreaux just for kicks.

The last stop for a young utopian

The Rebirth Brass Band was on the bill that night. Brydum, 25, had danced for a while outside the club in her flip-flops. She thought that the bouncer would eventually let her in for free, and that suited her in more ways than one. She believed, passionately, that people would one day reject a basic mechanism of free-market societies: the exchange of goods and services for money.

She arrived in New Orleans in late September with a rail pass, a little red notebook and a head full of ideas about the oppressive forces of capitalism and government, and how they might be replaced with something better. The road trip was partly a rite of passage in the grand tradition of Jack Kerouac -- an adventure to mark her recent graduation from college in San Francisco. But she also hoped to report on the small, scattered outposts where fellow radicals had established alternatives to mainstream culture.

It would all end in New Orleans, four miles from the Howlin' Wolf, in a forlorn and out-of-the-way block in the 9th Ward.

More than three years after Hurricane Katrina, its homes remained battered and abandoned, its lots choked with debris and roof-high weeds. To many Americans, this kind of New Orleans neighborhood has come to symbolize a near-criminal lack of government presence.

Brydum might have seen the block as the kind of place where an autonomous, post-capitalist movement might flourish.

But it is unclear if she saw it at all.

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[ via Dan Clore ]

The 'Encapsulated Marginality' of global nomads

From Identity and The Need to Belong:Understanding Identity Formation and Place in the lives of Global Nomads

This refers to people who are 'buffeted by conflicting cultural loyalties' and feel isolated in their marginality. They may be very unsure of who they are and hence also find it difficult to make decisions, define their boundaries and identify personal truths. (Bennett, www.worldweave.com/BSIdentity.html, p.2) The result of this will often lead to a strong sense of alienation, powerlessness and the feeling that life is devoid of meaning. Essentially, the marginal person is likely to pass through this process before becoming a 'constructive marginal'. Furthermore, the encapsulated marginal tends to experience himself or herself as immensely isolated, to the extent that they can envision no peer group to whom they can otherwise relate. This state is what Bennett has termed 'terminal uniqueness' for it seems irresolvable to the encapsulated marginal. (M.R. Paige, 1993, pp.115) Furthermore they 'may report feeling inauthentic all the time, as if any engagement with society is simply role playing, and there is no way ever to feel at home.' In order to try and assimilate into the society in which global nomads find themselves, those who respond as encapsulated marginals may give up their international selves completely. Others, in turn, may exacerbate this, as one global nomad recounts: 'my fiancé warned me to give up all this 'international stuff' if I really wanted to marry her.

Detachment or complete assimilation, on the surface, will often also occur simply because it is too strenuous to feel constantly pulled by conflicting loyalties and identities. Often, this will not be apparent to surrounding peers, as most multiculturals are adept at being a 'chameleon' in their varying social strata. Hoffmann eloquently portrays the isolation of this experience:

"My detachment would serve me even better if it were entirely genuine. It isn't. Underneath my careful trained serenity, there is a caldron of seething lost loves and a rage at that loss. And there is - for all that - a longing for a less strenuous way to maintain my identity and my pride. I want to gather experience with both my hands, not only with my soul. Essential humanity is all very well, but we need the colors of our time and the shelter of a specific place. I cannot always be out on the heath - we exist in actual houses - in communities, in clothes - and occasionally at some garden party amidst meaningless chat..." (E. Hoffmann, 1989,pp.40)

The identity of the encapsulated marginal has experienced disjunction from constantly shifting frames of reference and the intensity of this experience will normally depend on a number of factors including, for example, previous experience with cultural shifts, existing support systems, personality traits and what can be termed 'culture distance' (the degree of similarities between internalized cultures). (M.R. Paige, 1993, pp.114) Because this person has difficulty controlling the shifts between the worldviews of at least two cultures, Park suggests the person 'learns to look upon the world in which he was born and bred with something of the detachment of a stranger.' (Park, 1928 pp.888) It is this constant disjunction, as Jung suggests, which may lead to a disunion within the person and may cause them to give up, and to lapse into identity with their surroundings. (Jung, 1965 pp.342-343) It may be that the second culture applies such pressure to conform to unfamiliar roles in order to achieve acceptance or success. Real integration or success may therefore continually be thwarted in the context of an oppressive second culture.

As a result, establishing enduring goals and clear values, or strong personal attachments represents a major effort, given the conflicting pressures. This, in turn, leaves the marginalized person more isolated once again. 'The sense of being alone with this cultural- identity struggle often causes marginal people to feel detached from all reference groups and forced to resolve these conflicts alone.' (M.R. Paige, 1993, pp.119) In an intercultural training program referred to as 'Perry's scheme' learners get beyond the confusing point of different cultural perspectives through the recognition of the inevitability of ambiguity.

Cultural marginals are helped in taking on their own responsibility to think autonomously, based on the assessment of a specific context. This stage, which is referred to as contextual relativism allows the cultural marginal random cultural-frame-of-reference shifting to become grounded in a specific context. Basically, the context is assessed and then the marginal commits themselves to a set of personal values within this context. Ultimately, 'it requires the person to make a commitment to a value system honed from many contexts and an identity actively affirmed and based solidly on self as choice maker.'(M.R. Paige, ed.1993, pp.119) Furthermore, in beginning to move away from a multiplistic stage of cognitive and ethical development and more towards contextual relativism, it requires the marginal person to demonstrate a flexibility of boundaries, balanced by a skill at defining them. The cultural marginal who can master this stage can become a constructive marginal, capable of constructing identity and making commitments in the face of ambiguity.

Identity theorist Dr. Schaetti found that individuals who had a strong set of values or faith growing up began a much earlier reflective process in regards to their identity than those where this was absent. (Conversation with Dr. Barbara F. Schaetti, 2002) However, many on returning from living overseas to their faith communities find that they have little or nothing in common with them. This produces a profound questioning of one's core beliefs and value system as well as one's various cultural frames of reference. Committing to a set of values in the face of so much ambiguity is one that probably few feel they achieve satisfactorily. Nonetheless, it is a move towards what it means to be a constructive marginal.

Claim: Identity of master alchemist Fulcanelli finally revealed

After more than fifteen years of reflexion, we finally decided to reveal the true identity of the enigmatic FULCANELLI. Who was the masterly author of the Mystery of the Cathedrals and of the Dwellings of the Philosophers, whose depth remains considerable still nowadays, at the beginning of the 21st century

FULCANELLI let appear in his work, in addition to an unequalled teaching of Alchemy and Hermetic Symbolism , invaluable elements making it possible to determine his true personality and thus to prove with certainty his patronymic identity

According to the thread skilfully left by Eugene Canseliet who was the unique disciple of FULCANELLI, we devoted ourselves here to a true investigation which led us to inquire into the alchemical but also into the scientific spheres of the years 1880-1920. It appeared slowly but clearly that the one who was dissimulated behind the pseudonym of FULCANELLI, was also a prestigious member of the Institute. Indeed, a great number of his reports and communications were retained by the Academy of Science. It is thus by no means surprising that he was in contact, according to the own testimony of Eugene Canseliet, with the scientists of his time, such as the elderly Chevreul, Marcellin Berthelot or even Pierre Curie, but also with the popular politicians of his time, whom he was meeting at his friend's Ferdinand de Lesseps, the man at the origin of the famous Suez Canal!

This meticulous investigation enables the intense moments and the breath-taking discoveries which marked out the life of the famous alchemist whose pseudonym of FULCANELLI meaning the Fire of the Sun, was perfectly suitable. This pseudonym indicated his hermetic concerns indeed just as it indicated his scientific research, which allowed him to reach... immortality on two behalves!

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